Neil Young - Time Fades Away (1973)

Time Fades Away is a 1973 live album by Neil Young, consisting of previously unreleased material. Long out of print on vinyl, still unavailable on CD, and widely pirated, physical copies of the album are highly sought after.

Along with the soundtrack to Journey Through the Past, Time Fades Away remains the only officially released Neil Young album unavailable on CD, which may be due to technical issues: Time Fades Away was recorded directly from the soundboard to final 2-track masters using the Quad-8 CompuMix, the unreliable first digital mixing soundboard—against the wishes of producer David Briggs, who referred to it as the "Compufuck" but was forced to yield to the desires of Young. This resulted in a murky-sounding release; because the final mixes were those rough cuts, the album cannot be remixed for improved clarity:

There were no 2 track masters ever made of this record. The master discs were cut directly from the 16 track masters through the Compumix system. A mix was recorded to a second 16 track machine–we had 2 that would run perfectly together–to feed the variable pitch system of the lathe–but was discarded when we were through. I was the mastering engineer who cut the masters.
—Phil Brown

At the time of its release, Time Fades Away was poorly received in comparison to its predecessor, missing the Top 20 and gaining few critical accolades.[citation needed] However, and perhaps due in part to its scarce availability in recent years, consensus among the Young faithful now places the record in the league of his greatest artistic triumphs. In 1995, there were plans to release the album on CD using the HDCD encoding; several test pressings were made. However, the CD release was shelved for unknown reasons. In early 2007, Young's management reiterated that there were no plans to release the album on CD. Pristine vinyl copies are still available in used stores and on eBay, often with the fold-out liner notes still intact; some CDs from the 1995 test pressings exist, and copies of these CDs are circulated as bootlegs. Additionally, some fans have made CDs from the more readily available vinyl copies.

Neil Young commented on Time Fades Away in the original, unreleased liner notes for his 1977 triple-album compilation Decade:

Time Fades Away. No songs from this album are included here. It was recorded on my biggest tour ever, 65 shows in 90 days. Money hassles among everyone concerned ruined this tour and record for me but i released it anyway so you folks could see what could happen if you lose it for a while. I was becoming more interested in an audio verite approach than satisfying the public demands for a repetition of Harvest.

01 Time Fades Away – 5:36
* Recorded at The Myriad, Oklahoma City (March 1, 1973)
02 Journey Through the Past – 3:19
* Recorded at Public Hall, Cleveland (February 11, 1973)
03 Yonder Stands the Sinner – 3:17
* Recorded at Seattle Center Coliseum, Seattle (March 17, 1973)
04 L.A. – 3:11
* Recorded at The Myriad, Oklahoma City (March 1, 1973)
05 Love in Mind – 1:58
* Recorded at Royce Hall, UCLA (January 30, 1971)
06 Don't Be Denied – 5:16
* Recorded at Memorial Auditorium, Phoenix (March 28, 1973)
07 The Bridge – 3:05
* Recorded at Memorial Auditorium, Sacramento (April 1, 1973)
08 Last Dance – 8:47
* Recorded at Sports Arena, San Diego (March 29, 1973)

FLAC:
http://rapidshare.com/files/328613682/ny-tfa.part1.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/328622698/ny-tfa.part2.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/328624602/ny-tfa.part3.rar